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At the Lenovo Innovation Technology Conference 2024, Lenovo unveiled a prototype smart home assistant codenamed ‘AI Buddy’. Designed to compete with popular devices like the Amazon Echo, the Lenovo AI Buddy brings unique design elements and innovative features that make it stand out from other smart home assistants on the market.

The Lenovo AI Buddy is shaped like an oversized, foldable MagSafe charging base, with a circular display on top that displays animated eyes as emojis to simulate emotions and enhance user interaction.

The facial expressions are reminiscent of the JoyfulRobotics Android Desktop Robot, developed by an ex-Xiaomi Employee last year. The display also shows basic information like time, weather updates, music options, and personal photos.

The AI Buddy also incorporates USB-A and USB-C ports, as well as a headphone jack on the base, making it versatile for users who want connectivity options in their smart home devices. The device is sleek and minimalist, aligning with Lenovo’s approach to design, while also providing essential functionality in a compact form factor.

Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing unveiled the AI Buddy alongside Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, announcing a partnership between Lenovo and Meta to launch AI Now, a personal AI assistant for PCs based on Meta’s Llama large model.

The AI Buddy incorporates this advanced technology, delivering a more natural and adaptive user experience. It uses sentiment-based AI to customize responses, handling tasks like scheduling, reminders, and daily tasks while learning and adapting to user preferences over time.

The product stands out with a rotating display that can adjust to maintain visual contact with the user, much like Amazon’s Echo Show 10. This feature makes interactions feel more personal and dynamic, as the AI Buddy follows users and adjusts based on where they are in the room.

With the integration of AI Now, the AI Buddy assists with task management and helps users organise their day efficiently. Additionally, Lenovo emphasised the data security of the device, ensuring that sensitive information is handled appropriately and that users' interactions with the AI Buddy remain private.

During the event, Lenovo also unveiled several other prototypes beyond the AI Buddy, such as the AI Mouse, which includes a dedicated AI Now button for seamless integration into Lenovo's AI ecosystem. In addition, Lenovo showcased the Lenovo Family AI Brain, which is designed to manage, organise and protect family memories, creating AI-generated highlights of precious moments.